Credibility that convinces, above anything else.

Mon, 25 Apr 2011
2 min read
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Dear Madam/Sir,

I refer to the letter “Experience that counts, not looks” (April 23).

As a matter of full disclosure: I, too, will not be able to vote in Marine Parade GRC.

However, I would be offended if the writer is implying that most Singaporeans are unthinking when it comes to assessing the suitability of political candidates to represent them.

From my observations, the support that Ms Nicole Seah has received thus far has been mainly on her own merit.

Ms Seah has been successful in demonstrating her honesty and reliability in offline interactions with friends, colleagues and ordinary Singaporeans prior to her foray into politics. This is evident from the high regard which people hold Ms Seah in when they narrate anecdotes about her principled personal beliefs and professional work ethos.

Furthermore, recent videos of Ms Seah speaking in interviews have been circulating on social media networks. Her intelligence, clarity and persuasion in these videos have been critical in convincing Singaporeans that Ms Seah is a credible candidate.

In light of these two key factors, there is no logical reason why Ms Seah should not receive the support she has garnered. Likewise, there is no evidence to the contrary as to why Singaporeans should not look to Ms Seah for future political representation and leadership.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Laremy LEE (Mr)

(Published as “She has earned the support” on 25 Apr 2011 in TODAYonline.)

How to compose an e-mail message.

Sat, 19 Mar 2011
3 min read
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In the last few years, I've noticed a trend: most students don't know how to compose e-mail messages, even if their lives depend upon it. (PHOTO: MyLearningSolutions.org)

In the last few years, I’ve noticed a trend: Most students don’t know how to compose e-mail messages, even if their lives depend upon it.

That’s quite a pity, because this is actually a compulsory skill taught at the ‘O’ Level.

Perhaps it’s not made so explicit i.e. perhaps teachers don’t teach students how to write e-mail messages per se.

But I know for a fact that teachers do prepare their students to write formal letters – the structure of which can be used in e-mail messages.

So it’s either one of two things:

  • Most people need to be taught specific actions for each scenario in life; or
  • Most people have been taught to the test so much that the ability to transfer and/or apply knowledge learnt in class has been lost entirely on them.

In any case, I’ve also learnt that if people make mistakes and aren’t corrected at specific points in their lives, they go through the rest of their lives carrying said mistake(s) with them.

THEREFORE!

So that I don’t need to keep on repeating myself over and over again, this is the Mr Laremy guide to crafting an appropriate e-mail message!

(Round of applause, please.)

—

Dear student,

Thank you for your e-mail message. Please take note of the following:

  1. For future correspondence, you must include a salutation that addresses the recipient of your e-mail or letter e.g. Dear Sir, Dear Madam, Dear Mr Laremy, etc.

  2. You must also include a paragraph or two of text that explains the purpose of your message. A blank e-mail message literally does not say anything.

  3. Use a valediction or a sign-off appropriate to the content and tone of the message e.g. “Yours sincerely” or “Sincerely” since you are a student writing to a teacher, in this case.

  4. An example of how you can craft a simple but appropriate e-mail message:

    “Dear Mr Laremy,

    I have attached my assignment to this e-mail message.

    Thank you.

    Yours sincerely,
    A. Long-Suffering Student”

  5. Other things you will find useful:
    • If your work is late, it is courteous to provide an apology for not being able to meet the deadline. This would help your case if you need to request for an extension to the deadline.
    • The word you want to use is “deadline”, not “dateline”.
    • When writing to teachers, do not adopt a superior tone in your message; we are not your subordinates. This means that I have a bit more leeway in terms of using phrases like “Please take note” – but you don’t.
    • Neither should you adopt a familiar tone with teachers in your message – we may be friendly, but we are not friends.

  6. You can refer to this website for more info about this. There’s a little activity at the end which you can try too.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Mr Laremy

Ain’t gonna work, man.

Wed, 2 Feb 2011
3 min read
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Letter from the PAP Community Foundation (Bedok Branch).

(image via mrbrown; read the SDP website for more info if you don’t have graphics support.)

Well, if Freakonomics is to be believed, the scheme ain’t gonna work.

In fact, it could potentially backfire on the daycare centre in that the teachers end up doing extra work for no pay (I’m assuming the ‘fine’ goes to the centre and won’t get channelled to the teachers as ‘overtime’ pay).

And knowing how good some Singaporeans are at finding bargains, some parents could very well pick up their children 40 minutes after the official release time to effectively get 40 extra minutes of child minding for free!

That is, the letter illustrates the fine for each five-minute block from 12.05pm/5.05pm to 12.35/5.35pm, but doesn’t say anything about what happens if people come at, say, 12.40pm/5.40pm.

The letter needs an additional clause in the example after the last bullet point that says “and so on” or “etc” or something to that effect to prevent any grounds for quibbling.

But even then, the centre still hasn’t provided a terminal point, or a time limit in terms of how long it will wait for the parent to pick up her/his child.

So what’s a poor childcare centre to do?

It can’t boot the kids out when they’re done for the day (unethical) but the teachers are human beings and need time after work ends to eat/rest/go for courses, etc. too.

I’d suggest they could consider the following:

  1. Send their staff for English language re-training (which I can conduct – for a fee, of course),
  2. Rewrite the letter as part of their homework, this time phrasing it in this manner:
    • Parents to be given a 15 minutes grace period, following which
    • Parents to be fined $50* for every 15-minute block of time in which their child/ward remains at the centre.
    • If the parents have still not arrived after, say, 45 minutes from the time the child has been released, a certain procedure will be taken to place the child in another authority’s custody**.

* The number is arbitrary, but I think it’s sufficiently large enough to act as a deterrent, which is what the centre is looking for, anyway.
** Whatever procedure the centre has for dealing with cases of abandonment or neglect e.g. taking the kid to the nearest police post after the parent has been duly notified or if all attempts to contact the parent has gone unanswered.

What do you think?